Bucky’s Fan Favorite Tournament: round of 32 (West Region)

With COVID-19 crushing everyone’s March Madness vibe, we at B5Q crafted our own tournament to determine which basketball player from the past 20 years was the biggest fan favorite.

After the first round of votes have been cast, there seems to be some serious odd love pouring in for some of the current players, as presumptive favorites such as Michael Flowers, Mike Wilkinson, and Ben Brust fell.

WAIT WTF, FRANK THE TANK?!?!?!!!? March Madness has taken a very different turn...

For the second round, we will continue to split the voting into regions. We at B5Q will briefly breakdown each matchup, and it is up to you the fans to vote and ultimately decide who moves on, and who is eliminated.

To kick things off, we turn our attention to the West Region. Check out each pairing below, and vote for your favorite.

The voting window closes at midnight, Monday, March 30, so get those votes in quick.

Check out the complete round of 32 bracket Bucky's Fan Favorite Tournament Bracket.pdf.

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(1) Alando Tucker vs. (9) Vitto Brown

Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

Pretty much all you have to say about Tucker is that he is the all-time leading scorer for the Wisconsin Badgers men’s basketball program. He scored 2,217 points over his career and was a consensus first-team All-American in 2007. Tucker also earned 2007 Big Ten Player of the Year and was a finalist for every national player of the year award, winning the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award.

A two-time first-team All-Big Ten selection, Tucker finished his career ranked ninth in Big Ten history in career points and led the Badgers to a career record of 99-35, including a then-school record 30 wins in 2006-07. He was the first UW player to lead the Big Ten in scoring in league games (20.0 ppg, 2006) since Don Rehfeldt in 1950 and he finished career ranking first or second in eight different UW season statistical categories, topping the charts in career field goals, free throws made, games played and minutes played.

He was drafted in the first round by the Phoenix Suns and played professionally both in the NBA and overseas for a decade. More recently, as in this past season, Tucker stepped up and filled in as an interim assistant coach with Howard Moore on medical leave. The Lockport, Ill. native is, no questions asked one of the top Badgers of all-time.

Tucker was recently named to the UW Athletic Hall of Fame, part of the University’s highly-acclaimed 11-member class of 2018.

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If this were a bracket of best singers in Wisconsin basketball history or most likely to be shouted at by Drew during a game in Wisconsin basketball history, Brown would be a Final Four shoo-in.

Brown was a member of the 2014 and 2015 Final Four teams and played in 120 career games for the Badgers, earning academic all-conference honors twice. Between his sophomore and junior seasons enjoyed the third-largest scoring increase in the Big Ten after averaging just 1.8 ppg as a sophomore and improving that to 9.7 ppg as a junior. Shot 35.2% from deep for his career while averaging 5.5 ppg an 3.1 rpg.

Brown was a two-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree (2016, ‘17) and Big Ten Sportsmanship Award honoree (2016, ‘17).

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(5) Josh Gasser vs. (4) Andy Kowske

Photo by Lance King/Getty Images

I have a friend who once told me he’d rather have Josh Gasser on his team than Russell Westbrook. That’s how highly Gasser is thought of among Wisconsin fans. Nicknamed Captain America, the Port Washington native did just about everything right every time he stepped on the floor.

He played on two Final Four teams, recorded the Badgers first ever triple-double (10 points, 12 boards, 10 assists against Northwestern on Jan. 23, 2011) and was the first freshman to do it in the B1G since Magic Freaking Johnson. He made the conference’s all-defensive team twice, he is fourth in school history in free throw percentage, tenth in school history in three point percentage and third in school history in assist-to-turnover ratio.

By the time Gasser finished his UW career, he had re-written all of the school’s career service records, setting the marks for carer starts (144), games played (148) and total minutes player (4,774). He joined Michael Finley as the only players in Badgers history to post 1,000 points, 500 rebounds and 250 assists over his career.

Gasser could go very, very far in this tournament.

Photo by Lawrence Iles/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Kowske averaged 6.9 ppg (nice), 5.1 rpg and shot 55.7% from the floor over his 128 games as a Badger. During the Badgers Final Four run in 2000 he averaged a shade under 10 points and eight rebounds per game during the NCAA Tournament. An excellent defender, Kowske was a key piece to the early 2000s Wisconsin teams.

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(11) D’Mitrik Trice vs. (3) Marcus Landry

Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images

An Ohio native, Trice has been a lightning rod for “Hot Wisconsin Basketball Takes” over his four year career, but in his past two seasons he has been named third team all-B1G and honorable mention all-B1G and he just became the 44th Badger to score 1,000 career points.

He ranks ninth in school history in made three pointers and fifth in school history in assist-to-turnover ratio. He also has one more season left in his career to move on up the record books.

He Became just the fifth true freshman to start a game at Wisconsin since 2000 (joining Devin Harris, Alando Tucker, Josh Gasser & Sam Dekker).

Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

My last girlfriend in college, who is currently my wife, always liked Marcus Landry. That bumps him up at least one seed for me, but that’s neither here nor there. During his Wisconsin career, the Milwaukee native averaged 9.2 ppg, 4.2 rpg and 1.2 apg. He also shot threes at a 36.1% clip and averaged 12.7 ppg in his senior season. He was named the B1G Tournament MVP in 2008 after leading the Badgers to the tournament title.

A two-time second-team all-Big Ten pick in 2008 and 2009, he finished his career ranking eighth in UW annals with 185 career offensive rebounds and fifth in Badgers history with 99 career blocks. He became just the 18th player in UW history with 1,000 points and 500 rebounds when his career ended.

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(10) Nate Reuvers vs. (2) Jon Leuer

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Reuvers, a native of Lakeville, Minn., was recently named third team all-B1G for the 2019-2020 season. He has played in 93 career games and is already fourth on the all-time blocks list with 144. Twice in his career he has recorded nine blocks in a game and in one of them he nearly reached a triple-double with 14 points, 14 rebounds and 9 blocks against Eastern Illinois (11/8/19). He had 60 blocks in 2019, the 5th-highest single-season total in UW history and he still has one more season to play.

This past year he led the Badgers in scoring with 13.1 ppg and was second on the team in rebounding with 4.6 rpg.

Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images

Leuer was an honorable mention AP All-American in 2011 while also being named first-team all-B1G by the coaches and second-team by the media. He was also honorable mention all-B1G in 2010.

The native of Orono, Minn. finished twelfth in school history with 1,376 career points and is one of just eight players in UW history with 1,300 points and 500 rebounds. He scored 621 points in his senior season (18.3 ppg), the third-highest single-season total in school annals. His 85 career blocks place him 10th on UW’s all-time ledger.

Leuer led UW in scoring and rebound during both his junior and senior seasons and was a two-time Academic All-Big Ten (2009 & 2010).